Steady day for Matthieu Lagrive

Honda Althea Racing rider Matthieu Lagrive made steady progress throughout the first day as the World Superbike circus rolled into Portimao.

During morning practice he posted fifteenth fastest time with 1:45.994, improving in first qualifying to 1:45.133.

Unfortunately for the Frenchman as the day went on, others around him also improved their times, resulting in him finishing seventeenth.

“I'm not that disappointed about my best lap time (1:45.133),” said Lagrive, “but I know I can do somewhat better.”

“I spent my first day of practice working through various machine settings but we still have to find a better one. We have some problems to solve that were evident in the second and third sectors so we have a bit of work to do to find the best bike balance.”

Looking forward to tomorrow, the Honda rider is hoping for a boost of half a second from new settings.

“Tomorrow morning I want to push hard starting from the beginning of the qualifying session and I am sure we can make further progress and I'll certainly get into the Superpole.”